Chapter 2: Motivating Young Adolescents

Chapter 2: Motivating Young Adolescents
Motivation is key to any person, situation, and it is necessary to be successful; motivation for middle school students is no exception. In this chapter, Rick talks a lot about the ways a teacher can motivate students such as proving that you love the subject you are teaching; making things fun for students; and being able to relate the information to their everyday lives. I think that any teacher will admit that if their students are not interested in the materials then they will not bother to even try and learn. Another very important part of the chapter is his discussion about how a safe environment is indeed necessary for students so that they can produce the best work and feel comfortable enough to talk out in class. If the students do not feel safe or comfortable enough to speak then they will be hesitant to do the work, and you may have a very quite classroom. It is important to remember not to make comments about students because sometimes what you view as a joke ends up being misconstrued, and the student takes it as an insult.

This chapter stood out to me because I am very interested in coaching and a major aspect of being a good coach is to manage to get your athletes motivated; I feel that teaching is no different. I also agreed with Rick on the notion of a safe environment for the students. I can speak from personal experience, if I do not feel comfortable in a classroom then I will most likely not speak at all; mind you, I am twenty-one years old, and if I won’t speak in a college class because of that then I cannot imagine a middle school student wanting to speak in a class that makes him or her feel uncomfortable. I was also happy that he spoke about some many of the concepts and ideas that we used in practicum, such as differentiated instruction, multiple intelligences, and reading strategies. When you finally realize as a teacher that school isn’t about you but about the students then I think you will be the most successful. If you can put our ego aside and focus on making sure that the student are learning then you will be a good teacher.